Top contender Rodney
Batiste nicknamed Thériault“The Iceman”, after
challenging Jean-Yves in his second PKA world title
defense, owing
to the champion’s intimidating icy stare and cool demeanor in the ring, to his
dangerous knockout punch and to his hometown habit of defending his title
inside an ice hockey arena in a kickboxing ring assembled atop a sheet of ice.

Any
stand-up combative sport where competitors fight with kicks and punches for a
knockout or multi-judge decision over scheduled rounds divided by rest periods.
Throughout the 1980s, the STAR System World Kickboxing Ratings strictly
distinguished between kickboxing which prohibited clinch-fighting and muay
Thai which permitted clinch-fighting. STAR regarded kickboxing and muay Thai
as different sports. Since that era, combative sports have become more
broadly divided between kickboxing and mixed martial arts. Sanctioning bodies
have embraced competition and established kickboxing titles under multiple
rule formats. For the sake of the historic record, all prominent rule formats
have been indicated within ring record compilations.

EXPERIMENTAL – variable rule schemes from the early formative
period of kickboxing (i.e. USKA, WSMAC, NKL), or special negotiated rules to
enable a mix-match between contestants from otherwise different combative
sports (i.e. kickboxer versus wrestler)

DSQ (DISQUALIFICATION) – regarded the same
as a TKO; typically the winner has been determined by penalty for a
deliberate foul or for consecutive round violations of the minimum kick
requirement

TDRAW – technical draw;
fight stopped without basis for a decision

KO – knockout

KICK-KO (KKO) – kick-knockout

KICK-TKO(TKKO) – technical kick-knockout

TKO – technical
knockout

NO-CONTEST – outcome
officially set aside

NO-DECISION – competitive
bout conducted without judges

STAR Equalization Findings

For
purposes of world-rated kickboxing competition and record keeping, STAR equalization
findings differentiate between amateur and professional bouts, exclude bouts
from other related combative sports (boxing, muay Thai, grappling), as well as
arbitrate any peculiarities that occurred in the early and unruly era of kickboxing’s
rapidly changing rules and uneven standards for fair competition. The STAR System had no interest in advancing one competitor
over another and never interfered with a competitor’s official kickboxing
record beyond the aforementioned distinctions.

*1

Thériault v Reed: Reed quit after
being knocked down from a right uppercut to the head.Thériault voluntarily vacated his ISKA
and PKC world titles upon official retirement from the ring following this
bout.

*2

Thériault v Roufus: Although
knocked down in the 4th round for first time in his 46-bout career, Roufus
dominated the later rounds when Thériault appeared to run out of steam.

*3

Thériault v Patridis: ISKA title not
at stake. Prior to this bout, Thériault chastised the local athletic
commission for the sloppy scoring of its judges. Later, although Thériault
never pointed fingers, some ring watchers believed that this decision inappropriately
went against Thériault in retaliation for his advocacy of improved
judging standards.

*4

Thériault v de Snoo: 6,200
spectators. Netherlander de Snoo received repeated warnings and point
deductions for illegal low kicks before his disqualification for excessive
rule violations. Thériault had scored multiple knockdowns and was dominating
the bout on points when the referee halted the bout.

*5

Thériault v Kaman: Thériault
did not answer the bell for the 6th round owing to an aggravated back injury
sustained during training.Kaman came
in overweight; ISKA world title declared vacant.Kaman retained WKA world title.

*6

Thériault v Bergeron-1: 2,500
spectators.

*7

Thériault v Thurman-1: 10,000
spectators.Referee stopped the fight
following an incapacitating eye cut principally inflicted by front
kicks.Thériault earned his biggest
single-bout purse to that point.Backed by a multi-millionaire promoter, this bout headlined the
most-hyped event in the history of the PKA sanctioning group; also likely in
the history of the sport.

*8

Thériault v Brewer-2: Over 3,200
spectators.

*9

Thériault v Wilson: Capacity 8,000
spectators.Fought
without formal sanction, each fighter agreed to select two judges. The two
journalists selected by the Wilson camp brought in scores of 117-115 and
118-113 for Wilson, and the two judges selected by Thériault's camp brought in scores of 116-119 and 116-118 for Thériault.This fight
reportedly drew the biggest live gate net profit for any kickboxing event in
North America to that time, about $100,000 CAD.

*10

Thériault v Batiste-2:
Near-capacity 7,881 spectators.

*11

Thériault v Ford: 1,500 spectators.

*12

Thériault v Hopkins: 6,137
spectators.

*13

Thériault v Jones: 4,000
spectators.

*14

Thériault v Wright: 4,000
spectators.

*15

Thériault v Macaruso: 5,237
spectators.Macaruso was penalized a
point for holding in rounds 3,4,5,6 and 9.Final scores for Thériault: 100-82, 100-82, 100-84.

*16

Thériault v Bowden: 5,026
spectators.

*17

Thériault v Roop-3: 5,110
spectators.Stunned multiple times
throughout the bout, Roop did not answer the bell for round 7.

*18

Thériault v Richardson: 2,500
spectators.Unranked Richardson could
not answer the bell for the 7th round.

*19

Thériault v Scott: Scott
disqualified for minimum kick violations at the end of 4 rounds.

*20

Thériault v Dourant: 1,700
spectators.Referee Ron Desjardins
halted fight at the end of round 2 owing to cuts that closed both of
Dourant’s eyes.

*21

Thériault v Batiste-1: 2,500
spectators.Despite scoring the first
knockdown against Batiste in a one-sided effort, this match marked the first
time a Thériault
bout lasted 12 full rounds.Final
scores in all Thériault’s favor: 120-104, 120-105, 118-103.Afterward Batiste, who had predicted his own
victory by KO in the 7th, was asked what it would take to beat the
champion.The challenger replied,
“Kicks, punches … maybe an elephant gun.”

*22

Thériault v McMorris: 1,700
spectators.McMorris came out of
recent retirement with 4-days’ notice for this scheduled 7-round non-title
bout to replace Dave Brummit who had been sidelined by pneumonia.

*23

Thériault v Biggs: 4,000
spectators.Biggs ducked under Thériault’s
straight right into a round-kick into the forehead that connected with the
shin, opening a cut.Referee Truman
Irving halted the fight.The referee
initially told Biggs’s corner that the bout may be called a technical draw
but, after conferring with PKA Vice President Joe Corley regarding no-fault
fouls, he finally declared a TKO.A
protest filed by Biggs’s manager was not sustained.Thériault became the first Canadian to
win a world championship in a combative sport since boxer Jimmy McLarnin in
1933.A few years later, the PKA
changed its rules to reflect the pro-boxing practice of declaring a fight
stopped by cuts in the first round as a technical draw.

*24

Thériault v Poore: 1,200
spectators.

*25

Thériault v Narvaez-2: PKA
championship elimination bout. When Narvaez’s instructor Ray Martin was
selected as referee, Thériault’s corner advised that he pull out of the fight. Thériault
instead determined that he must win by knockout. In the sixth round, Thériault
knocks down Narvaez with three straight rights. When Narvaez pulls himself up
by grabbing the ring ropes, the referee gives him a standing 8-count, wipes
his gloves and continues to talk to him for another six or seven seconds
until the bell rings. In total, it’s a 17-second long count. PKA Joe Corley
as color commentator for ESPN noted that fighters were not supposed to be
saved by the bell, but had been in Narvaez’s case.

Thériault v Rodriguez: This bout
was broadcast nationally in the US over NBC-TV as the semi-main to the Benny
Urquidez-Rick Simerly world title fight.Former boxing champion Ken Norton provided expert color
commentary.Legendary tournament
karate champion and WKA co-founder Mike Stone refereed.Karate champ-turned-movie star Chuck Norris
sat in the audience as a special guest.

At the time of
the event, the WKA was undergoing a period of rapid rule adjustment.The organization encouraged international
matchmaking between North American, Asian and European competitors by
allowing muay Thai-style low kicks to the outside thigh.This “leg kick” technique was so powerful
against an unacquainted opponent that, in Europe, it was nicknamed “the great
equalizer”.A skilled low kicker could
defeat an otherwise superior athlete by constantly whacking away with the
shin bone into an opponent’s thigh muscles, keeping him off-balance, causing
his legs to spasm and draining his endurance.Most professional fighters required two years to master both the low
kick technique and its various defenses.

Because Rodriguez
then ranked among only a handful of expert low-kickers in the US, the WKA
agreed to exclude low kicks from this bout.However, the promoter neglected to inform Thériault’s camp that the WKA
defined the traditional footsweep technique differently from other
sanctioning groups.In the WKA,
footsweeps were not restricted to boot-to-boot motions.The kung-fu-style shin-into-calf sweep as
well as the drop-to-the-ground spinning sickle sweep were also
permitted.During the bout, Rodriguez
blended the low kick with a kung-fu sweep to spin Thériault around 360-degrees
into a hard oncoming left hook.Thériault’s
corner immediately protested, but was not sustained.

In 1983, a STAR
administrative inquiry determined:1)
Both WKA president Howard Hanson and Thériault’s manager John
Therien entirely concurred about what had occurred in this bout.2) Although Rodriguez had not technically
violated any WKA rule, including the low kick exclusion, the protest from Thériault’s
corner nevertheless had merit.Whether
by design or by unintended consequences, Jean-Yves Thériault had been subjected to
an unfair competitive disadvantage because he was not provided with
reasonable opportunity to prepare his defensive tactics against a kicking
sweep.3) The WKA should have been
more forthcoming about its evolving rule distinctions.4) A formal review panel should have been
convened by the WKA to consider a final disposition of no-contest.

The WKA
subsequently rejected STAR’s recommendation for a review panel because no
title had been at stake.

29

Thériault v Hollett-1: Over 1,000
spectators.

*30

Thériault v Kosycki: Sellout 1,500
spectators.

*31

Thériault v Sutherland:Owing to a cut above the eye,Thériault did not answer the
bell for the 3rd round. Sutherland later fought for the WBA and WBC
light-heavyweight boxing world titles and, 1984, won the IBF super
middleweight boxing world title.